Verbal and psychological abuse, belittling, squeezing the stomach, are just some of the painful experiences of women giving birth in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), whose testimonies, through anonymous surveys, were collected by the two associations “Baby Steps” and “Ostra Nula”.
In order for the happiest day in the lives of parents to remain so, it was calculated that for the safe arrival of a child into the world, white coats will be honored with more than two million BAM.
Waiting for the envelope
One of the women in labor whose testimony was provided by “Baby Steps” said that she was told that it was necessary to honor the doctors and midwives in order to make the birth as easy as possible.
”I refused to give any kind of bribe and had a terrible time during the birth. Although it was obvious that I would not be able to give birth to a baby naturally, they tortured me waiting for the “envelope”. After I barely survived the birth (emergency c-section), my husband was openly asked for 300-400 BAM to give to the doctor who tortured me, and in the end he didn’t even perform a c-section. We didn’t give. Also, he was asked to give 50 BAM for the “award” to the midwife, which he did,” said the midwife.
The president of the “Baby Steps” Association, Amila Tatarevic, told that due to the bad situation in maternity hospitals and corruption, they came up with the idea of conducting a survey in 2020 in which 2,713 mothers from all over BiH participated.
Verbal violence
”The research showed that corruption is present in 50 percent of cases, in the sense that every second birth is corrupt, whether bribe is given before or after birth. There we also have a big problem of customary law in the context of honoring after childbirth, in the desire to in some way reward the doctor who certainly receives a salary and is paid for what he does. The experiences of women in labor have shown terrible scenarios that happen in maternity hospitals and, unfortunately, they are not an exception, but a frequent occurrence in maternity hospitals,” explained Tatarevic.
The situation is such that positive experiences are the exception.
”Verbal violence is inevitable, there is practically no birth where someone did not yell at the woman in labor, whether it was a cleaner or a midwife, so it is common. Mothers in labor always emphasize that they are most hurt by this relationship in the sense of disrespecting the person,” said Tatarevic.
She adds that the voice of the women in labor was heard to some extent and that the Canton Sarajevo (CS) Prosecutor’s Office contacted them on its own initiative in order to improve the situation.
”Unfortunately, there is no report, reports of corruption and rights violations are very rare, they are only present if there is a fatal outcome, only then there is the court’s epilogue. We agreed on cooperation with maternity hospitals in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Tuzla, and we hope that it will bear fruit in the context of improving the system for reporting irregularities,” concluded Tatarevic, Avaz writes.
E.Dz.
